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Established in 1996 CMC Markets is the brand name of CMC Markets UK Plc and CMC Spreadbet Plc. CMC Markets (CMC stands for Currency Management Corporation) is one of the bigger spread betting providers with some 16 offices around the world. CMC Markets’ bespoke Marketmaker system is a pretty good system when you get used to it, but a bit daunting for a newcomer. Their software can either be downloaded on to the desktop, or or accessed via a web browser.
Tags: CMC, CMC Markets, cmcmarkets, deal4free
Posted on August 2nd, 2008 at 8:23 am
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3.8Advantages:
fast dealing, good for trading US shares/commodities
Disadvantages:
not many small caps/AIM are quoted
Been with CMC for around 5 years now and have had no major problems (in the last couple of years!). I have found their after sales care to have really improved and they now have a 24-hour help desk that I have never had any problems getting through to… unlike the CMC of old.
Having used CMC marketmaker, IG & Man spread betting. CMC far superior imo with ability to move quickly in and out of multi preset windows but does not have access to as many smallcaps & aim as IG & Man who offer any over….I believe £15M M/cap. I very seldom trade aim so not a problem. CMC much better for US markets and commodities. CMC good live chart package – Man 15min delayed – can’t remember IG’s. CMC gave me faster dealing….never had a problem slippage when closing as I did occasionally with Man & IG. I would suggest you think about the size of companies you want to deal in and phone CMC to see if they provide for them; not sure but I think you maybe limited to SETS & SETSmm. Despite the fact they have widened their spreads on equities they are still cheaper than any of their competitors so am still very happy to be trading with them.
Posted on October 23rd, 2008 at 10:16 am
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3.5Advantages:
great platform with nice charts
Disadvantages:
there are better spreads out there
Their spread is ‘average’ – there are much better spreads out there but you usually pay for this in other ways (requotes, slippage, etc). So good spreads doesn’t necessarily mean the cheapest trading.
the only problem i found with them was the support – when i called the guy on the phone was rude…
However, I’ve found the platform to be great. They even have good news flow which pops out automatically onto whatever site you happen to be on when a significant announcement is made…so latest oil inventory figures or non-farm payrolls or profit warning will be flagged up instantly. The charting is good and you can place trades directly through the charts.
Posted on November 11th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
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2.5Advantages:
Disadvantages:
Charting is now changed. ProRealtime was great and now they created their own, very limited and buggy version. No more backtesting or creating own indicators. Software is really limiting trading. It will consume your computers resources and freeze if you do not know how to change the Java that comes with the platform to more robust version. You can have only a very limited number of indicators to charts or you need a supercomputer. Stops will be hit if price is close enough (a few pips). Market price normally fair, sometimes 1 pip slippage. Help desk provides standard answers but normally do not answer the question or solve problems. Normally they have not even heard about similar issues (ie. software freeze and memory leak) or they are working to solve the problem (year after year). CMC Plus is not open for everyone. They do not even tell the criteria who will get that service (that is bad marketing). I use CMC Markets until I find more reliable company. They have all the potential to be number one, but somehow I have a feeling that they only wait to get your money so why put any money to make a more realible platform and service as most people will loose anyway?
Posted on February 3rd, 2009 at 3:29 pm
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3.3Advantages:
sleek platform, competitive markets
Disadvantages:
forex spreads widen a lot in news releases, you have to manually cancel stops
Good
-> Good spreads and margins.
-> Requotes in fast moving markets means you can exit with a market order.
-> Can trade really small parcels which is useful if you like to scale in and out.
Bad
-> FX spreads can [and do regularly] widen up to 50-60pips during periods of low liquidity so you can’t really use stops with FX.
-> One point against cmc is that once a position is open, you have to watch it – some sb co’s have a button to close your position I believe and that will automatically cancel the stops – cmc is a little more complicated and you usually need to manually cancel the stops once you’ve closed a position.
Posted on July 10th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
- Not Rated
- Not Rated
- Not Rated
- Not Rated
0Advantages:
daily bets keep rolling without losses being crystallised,
Disadvantages:
frequent re-quotes
I spread bet with CMC. No complaints other than CMC give a fair number of requotes. I use both IG and CMC so that if one goes down whilst I’m trading I can hedge any open position with the other. I also run ftse 1 min chart on trading IG with the 5 minute chart running on cmc or ftse on IG and DAX on cmc.
Something worth pointing on shares trading is that IG Index have auto rollover which closes and immediately opens the bet at the end of the day. However because they actually close it and then re-open it, it means that any loss/profit becomes a real and not a paper loss/profit even if after a day or 2 the share becomes completely profitable. CMC on the hand have a rolling daily bet that does NOT actually close the bet but rolls it over with the supposed advantage that losses/profits on any day prior to the actual close are paper and not actual ones. This gives some of the advantage of a CFD but with a spread bet with obvious tax advantages.
Posted on August 9th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
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2.8Advantages:
leverage and liquidity is good ok for swing trading
Disadvantages:
requotes can be a problem, slippage, not great support
IMO CMC requote all the time compared to other spreadbetting firms, and i always seem to get slippage on exit too. The customer service isn’t great either. The only reason I’m still here is because the leverage is great, the liquidity is good on most things, the spreads aren’t too bad for forex and indexes (silver is a shocker, gold is bearable). They are OK for swing/position trading, but i wouldn’t use them if you want instant accurate fills. They gave me £200 so i shouldn’t really grumble about them too much!
Posted on September 12th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
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4.5Advantages:
like the alerts, very competitive margins and big safe company to deal with
Disadvantages:
they will give you the hard sell when opening the account…
A few people moan about CMC Markets but really I think they are quite good – one of the things I like is that they always show a warning box ten minutes before major events. For margin leverage, they vary between 2% and 50%. The margins vary according to risk and liquidity of the underlying asset. I also like the fact that they are big enough that it ought to be safe dealing with them.
Their web platform, although useless for charts, is one of the best I’ve found for ‘effectiveness’ and although their desktop client isn’t up to my liking, the interactive chat with their customer service has proved invaluable. Perhaps the only problem I’ve noticed is that instead of support they seem to employ sales people…